The Kid as ad | Alienating the Kid from the city | Framing the Kid and disciplining his spectators
As the humorous ads in Hogan's Alley invade even the Kid's nightshirt, it becomes harder to tell whether the Kid is aligned with the "bottom line" concealed by the illusions of advertising, or with the illusions themselves. This ad is for an associated feature in the comic supplement--a "newspaper" written by the bespectacled child with the "patented" head. Connections such as this one lend the comic supplement the depth and complexity of an alternate universe.
The curtain forms a sharp boundary between audience and performance, and its square frame prefigures the frame of the sequential panel.
The curtain and the fantasy performance it makes possible distance the Kid from the world of the ghetto.

Detail from George Luks, "A Ghost Seance in Hogan's Alley," World 7 Mar. 1897. Reproduced from microfilm.